


Broken Reflections

by KazOfScotland



Series: KCAWS 30 Days of Winter Writing 2021 [12]
Category: Our Girl
Genre: Broken Reflections, Gen, Post teenage pregnancy, Snow Angels, Teenage Parent, War, finding yourself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28719948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KazOfScotland/pseuds/KazOfScotland
Summary: Why did Molly decide to join the army? What difference will it make to Molly's life?Molly has a daughter to think about but there was always something reflecting back just how broken she was, except when she envisioned herself as someone else than who she really was.Little snapshots of Molly's life with her daughter, Rose.
Series: KCAWS 30 Days of Winter Writing 2021 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2111565
Comments: 5
Kudos: 3
Collections: 30 Days of Winter Writing





	1. Chapter 1

Everything has a reflection if it is in the right conditions. You would think that having the right conditions would make a reflection pure, but it is only pure if the reflection isn’t broken, if the thing that it is reflecting isn’t already cracked. And that was why Molly hated to look at herself in the mirror. She was broken, her reflection was nothing but a reminder as she walked down the cold winter streets. Every glance in a window, every glare of a puddle just reflected the broken reflection back at her worse than before. 

For her whole life she had wanted to be whole. She first noticed it when she was child. It only became more apparent the year that she turned seventeen and she realised that she had a responsibility to look after her daughter and make sure that she had the best life possible. She wanted to be able to look at herself without seeing cracks. But she couldn’t. Not when she was stuck in the East End of London. There was no chance when she was stuck trying to make sure that her family didn’t fall apart. She had no chance of repairing those cracks, and as the days went on, she forgot what it was like to look at anything other than a broken reflection. 

She knew that she had to do something else. She knew that she had to change something but she couldn’t figure out what to change, not yet at least. She had no idea how to change anything, especially not when she had to consider everyone involved. 

There was her parents, her mum and her dad. They didn’t do great, but they did everything they could for them all. Her siblings, they all looked up to her and when things went wrong between their parents, Molly was always there to look out for them, she would never let them suffer from the actions or inactions of their parents. And then finally, there was Molly’s little girl, her daughter that came from a drunken night when she had thought that it would be a good idea to run about as a drunken teenager. 

She loved her daughter, and whilst she didn’t necessarily regret the fact that she had a child when she was so young, she did regret the fact that her relationship with her daughter’s father had been nothing more than a one night stand. But he was going to do the right thing, the only problem was, he was a soldier and died just days before her daughter was born. That was the final crack in her reflection. 

The final crack in her reflection as her heart was shattered. She wasn’t in a relationship with her daughter’s father, Geraint, and it may have only been a one night stand, however she had cared for him. But most of all her heart was broken for the fact that Rose, her darling little Rose, would have to grow up without a father. Her daughter would never know how much she was loved before she was even born solely because she would never get to meet both of her parents. 

However, Geraint had given her more than just her daughter. He had given her an idea. An idea of where her life could take her, unfortunately though, it wasn’t an option that she could take. Not yet, anyways. She couldn’t risk leaving Rose alone. She couldn’t just decide that she wanted to be in the army. Could she? 

But here was the thing. She always saw her broken reflection every single time she saw it, but when she herself as a member of the army, when she passed the recruitment office and imagined herself as the army girl, the cracks began to heal. It wasn’t a miracle cure, but it was like a calling. It was something that she had thought about for years, ever since she was in primary school. But she had never considered following that idea. She never thought that she could make the decision to do something so important. So she ignored it. She ignored the way that it made her seem as if she was putting herself back together. 

She denied the urge to follow her dream right up until her eighteenth birthday. Her mum had agreed to watch Rose so that she could have a normal birthday, so that she could go out and celebrate like the rest of her friends had. And she loved it, but she also knew that she had pushed it way too far. She had let her hear loose and she had let partied like a teenager with no responsibilities. 

The night only ended when she ended up vomiting outside of the recruitment centre, it was something that she wasn’t really aware of at the time. But the next morning, once she had woken up, and realised what had happened she knew that she had to go back. She wasn’t sure why, but she just knew. The previous night the cracks in her reflection had grown bigger, but they had also shrunk somehow. 

When she spoke to the recruitment officer whilst she was standing outside imagining herself in the position of the girl in the recruitment poster, she realised that it was the way for her to heal, that it was the way for her to finally stop looking at a broken reflection every time she walked past a mirror, or a window, or even a puddle of water. She could see herself being someone that her daughter and her siblings could look up to. She could finally be a role model that she was proud of being. 

That was why she said yes. That was why she decided to take the risk. Albeit she didn’t want to tell anyone in case she failed. She had always been good at failing, so why would it be any different this time round? 

She knew that it would be different this time around. All she had to do was make it through selection, and then she would begin to heal the parts of her that were broken. She would finally have a whole reflection, a reflection that was pure. 

  
  



	2. Snow Angels in the Sand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Smurf get's shot, Molly reverts back to a childhood activity to feel better and stop the cracks growing any wider.

She loved the purity of looking at the snow. The way that it blanketed the ground. The way that it looked so welcoming but it was so bitter and painful. The way that it was something that was just so perfect and exciting, but it was also a nightmare. It was painful for all affected when stuck outside and that was what was nightmarish about it all. That was what was so horrible about it. 

But then you just had to look at a child playing in the snow. Look at the joy that would spread across their face to see how it made everything so much better. That was what was so pure about the snow. The way that when it fell and lay, it washed away and hid the old, it hid the dirt, it made everything look clean. 

It was no surprise really that when children would run outside with a desire to play in it, one of the first things that they would do was drop to the ground and lie flat on their back. They would spread their arms and legs out, moving their arms up and down, and their legs in and out. And finally, finally, when they would stand up it would look like an angel. A pure white angel, a pure white sense of peace. 

Molly had made snow angels every single winter that she could with her daughter, Rose. Whilst Molly had never been in the best of places mentally since she was a child, she wanted to make sure that Rose got the fun parts of her childhood. She wanted to make sure that Rose got everything that she had lost since she had first started to realise that she was full of cracks that only grew every single time she caught a glance at her reflection. 

It was tough, it was difficult for her to heal, but the cracks started to close once she had made it through selection. It was the toughest thing that she had ever done, but it was also one of the very best. She knew that she was finally getting a chance to be herself. The only drawback, other than her family's disapproval, was the fact that she had to leave her daughter behind. Her daughter who she had to take down to Newport, her daughter who would be so far away from her despite the fact that it was the one thing she never wanted. She never wanted to be separated from her daughter. 

Molly had done everything she could to make sure that her daughter had the best life. And that was an almost impossible mission. Molly, herself, was from a difficult family background, it wasn’t exactly an easy upbringing. And Rose was already at a disadvantage. She only had Molly, a teenage mother, to support her.

She was lucky, Rose was a lot like snow. She was pure, she was perfect. But she also caused Molly so much pain. Not in a physical sense, but in a mental sense. Molly could feel her heart being ripped out every single time that she had to leave Rose in Newport or even leave Rose with her parents in London. And that is how she ended up here at 3am in the morning. 

It had been a tough day. Smurf had been shot, and all she had been able to think was that her daughter was going to lose someone else, someone who she relied on immensely. And that meant that she did the most stupid thing ever. She ran into the line of fire and risked being blown up. Well, actually, it wasn’t a risk, she was blown up, blown clean off the ground and a good four to six feet away from where she had been. It had been a miracle that she still had her whole body, that she was still alive and whole to live another day. 

Smurf had been bleeding out, and it took every bit of training that sh ahd not to freak out and forget everything. It took every piece of training that she had to make sure that Smurf made it to Bastion. And afterwards, all she could think of was the fact that her daughter, her sweet and innocent little girl had nearly lost everything. In that moment she could only imagine how that would destroy sweet innocence and purity that followed her little girl. 

The desire to be close to her daughter, to be able to hold her tight and let her know how loved she was, was what brought her out here. She was broken and falling apart. She knew that her cracks were returning, but she also knew that the childish fun that she had with her daughter would be enough to pull her back together. And that is how she got here. 

She was lying on the ground, in the sand, in a quiet, unseen part of the base. She hadn’t expected to be caught lying in the sand making sand angels instead of snow angels. She also hadn’t expected it to be Fingers who caught her, although she supposed there were worse people to be caught by. The last thing that she had expected though was for him to lie down next to her and start doing the same. 

She looked across at him but he just smiled and laughed. “It’s like being a kid, making snow angels.” 

“Exactly.” She agreed and returned to making her sand angels. It wasn’t healing the broken parts of her, it wasn’t making her miss Rose any less, it wasn’t making her stop wondering if she had made a mistake in joining the army, but it did make her laugh and stop the cracks getting any bigger. And for now that was all she could hope for. 

  
  



	3. Sledging

It was no surprise to Molly when she woke up to little hands pulling against her bed covers. She knew who it was, but there was a moment still when she startled, her head still stuck in a warzone. It was only for the briefest of moments before she laid eyes on her daughter, standing there and bouncing up and down on her tiptoes. 

Rose was looking beyond happy at the fact that her mum was finally awake and looking at her. It was mornings like this that made Molly both elated to have such a sweet and innocent little girl, but also made her regret having her daughter at such a young age. It was extremely early in the morning and as much as Molly wanted nothing more than to roll back over and return to sleep. But she knew that she had to get up, even if it was far too early. 

“Rosie, it’s still dark out,” Molly told her five year old daughter as she glanced towards the window and saw that it was pitch black. It was clearly too early for them to be doing anything. “Don’t you want to sleep for a little while, baby?” She asked as she quickly reached out to lift her child up onto the bed next to her. She paused though when Rosie started to shake her head adamantly. 

“Can’t go to sleep, mummy! It’s snowed!” Rose started bouncing up and down again in front of her. The excitement that her little girl could express still amazed her at times. She knew that she should be used to her daughter and her personality by now, but Molly still found it surprising that Rose hadn’t had her childhood innocence crushed from the cracks that Molly had. 

“The snow will be there later, Rosie. We can go to sleep and it’ll still be there,” Molly tried to assure the young girl as she wrapped her hands around Rose’s torso and swung her up to sit on the bedcover next to where she was still lying. Her little girl looked at her in a mixture of confusion and wonderment when she realised that she could now curl into her mum. It was rare that Molly allowed her to sit up on her bed, especially when Charlie was home. 

“Mummy, we’ve gotta get up, Grandma’s coming… and Uncle Smurf too! Uncle Smurf promised that if it snowed he’d take me sledging!” Rose exclaimed as she bounced up and down on the mattress. At least this time she was sitting down. The five year old was a ball of energy and excitement. And honestly, Molly could never blame Rose for that. 

“It’s still dark, Grandma and Uncle Smurf won’t be here until the sun’s up, baby. We can sleep if you want to and then you'll be full of energy to go sledging,” Molly tried to cajole her daughter back to bed. This was the part of parenting that no one had prepared her for. No one had told her about how her daughter would always jump around in the early hours of the morning, always be full of energy. 

Molly hated it at times. She absolutely hated it. But she knew why, and she was working on that. She knew it was because of the parts of her that were broken, the parts of her that reflected back as a crack in her reflection everytime she looked at it. A part of her had broken the day that Geraint had died, she knew that, because it was the same day that her daughter was born. She could honestly say that it felt like she gained her daughter at the expense of Geraint who never even had a chance to hear that his daughter had been born or what she had been called. And Rose, her sweet, innocent daughter reminded her so much of Geraint, in some ways, it was as if he never left. 

And the energy and excitement that Rose exhibited at the idea of playing in the snow was the exact same as that that Geraint would have in the same situation. Whilst she knew that she and Geraint would never have made it in a relationship, they had stayed friends for the sake of Rose, and she could just imagine the way that he would have been around to her house as early as possible to take Rose out sledging. 

“Mummy, I want to be ready for Grandma and Uncle Smurf,” Rose insisted, but she did allow Molly to pull her into a hug. Hugs with Rose were what put some of the cracks in Molly back together. It’s what closed them, just enough that she knew that she could be a good parent and give Rose the life that she deserved. ANd that is also the reason why she didn’t complain too much when Rose woke up early to play in the snow or to see her family. 

“Okay, why don’t you go and get dressed, and I’ll do the same,” Molly relented. She knew that she was the parent and a lot of people would say that she should never give in to what Rose wanted because it would teach her bad habits. However, she also knew that this wasn’t giving in or teaching bad habits, it was allowing her daughter, who had lost a lot and suffered before she was even born, to be a child and enjoy herself. 

“Okay. Love you mummy!” Rose agreed as she sat back up and started to nod her head enthusiastically. All Molly could do was smile as she watched her daughter, for as much as she wanted to be sleeping and relaxing, she also loved the way that Rose always made her feel better with her enthusiasm for everything that was life. The way that the five year old shuffled her way over to the edge of the bed was one of the cute things that always made her so happy. 

Molly waited until Rose had been sitting on the edge of the bed for a minute or two, rocking back and forth, before she offered her help. “Want a hand down, Rosie?” She made it sound fun, she knew that Rosie hated asking for help. 

A few hours later, once it was daylight, found Molly and Rose outside, in the snow,with Smurf and Rose’s Grandmother to go sledging. And the first thing that Molly noticed was the fact that it was freezing as she stood next to Smurf’s mum, Candy, at the top of the hill. But as she watched Rose and Smurf flee down the hill on the blue plastic sledge. She hated sledging, she could deal with getting blown up, shot at, being sent into a warzone at a moments notice, but the idea of trusting a piece of plastic to stop her from hitting the ground hard, that was too much. That was why she was glad that Smurf was there. It had been just over a year since he had collapsed on the football pitch, and she was beyond glad to see him acting like such a child. 

She loved her daughter, and she loved the family that she had, but there were times that she wondered if it would have been better for Rose if she had a more typical family. Rose had lost her father on the same day that she was born, her uncle had nearly lost twice within one tour to Afghan, and now she had a stepfather who was deployed to Kenya. She didn’t really get a chance to have normal family days like this without some sort of worry hanging over all of their heads. 

“Rosie is enjoying herself, Molly,” Candy commented as she watched her son and granddaughter stop their sledge at the bottom of the hill. Sometimes it just seemed as if she could see every worry that Molly had about Rose and the way that she was being raised. “I know you question yourself every time you deploy and Rosie comes to stay with me, or your parents, but she’s happy. That is all that matters, all that matters is the fact that Rosie is happy,” Candy assured her as she threw her arm around Molly’s shoulder.

Molly’s eyes kept following her daughter as she danced around in the snow at the bottom. Smurf was right there next to her, a smile on his face, and an excited manner that made Rose enjoy herself as if it was her first ever time playing in the snow. It was these moments that helped Molly to close up the cracks that always reflected back at her when she looked in the mirror. 

“Thanks,” Molly didn’t elaborate on why she was thanking Candy. But she had a suspicion that she knew why. The woman had always known best when it came to Geraint, Smurf and even Molly once she had become a part of the family. 

  
  



	4. Decorating

After being a single parent for three nearly four years, Molly found it difficult to trust people outside of her parents and Rose’s Grandma and Uncle with her daughter. But in this moment, she was so glad that she had started to push herself out of her comfort zone by trusting her fiance with Rose. But today, she was so glad that she had because the sight in front of her brought literal tears of laughter to the eyes of Molly. It was the last sight that she had ever expected to see when she came home. 

She had been away on a training weekend in preparation for her next deployment. She had to admit that the training weekend had been great in preparation for the deployment with a new section, it wasn’t the same as being with 2 Section, but it was a good section all the same. But even that wasn’t enough to distract her from the sight in front of her. Now, normally if she was away Rose would go to either London or Newport. She knew it was irrational but it felt strange to ask Charlie to keep her if he was home. She was always quite happy to watch Sam, although she didn’t offer until after Rebecca made it clear that she was comfortable with the idea of Molly being around her son. 

She had to admit that she was terrified at the idea of leaving Rose with Charlie for the weekend. She knew that it was ridiculous to be so scared. It was obvious that Charlie would look out for Rose whilst she was away, she knew that without a doubt but it was still something that made her feel uncomfortable. In some ways she thought that it was because of how she had never had someone to help her with Rose outside of Rose’s immediate family. But she had always known that it was something deeper. 

Only, it wasn’t until this moment that she realised what that crack in her reflection was. She didn’t realise why she was so scared to let someone else in to her and Rose’s family. She loved the sight in front of her, she loved everything that she was finally seeing. But despite the laughter and the tears of laughter that were exploding from her, she also felt her heart break. 

It was clear from the look of the room in front of her that Charlie had finally started to decorate Sam’s bedroom, and that the two children had been helping with the decorating. Paint was splashed all over the walls, and the dust sheets that floor. But that wasn’t what was causing her to laugh. 

Charlie and the kids had made their way back to the living room. Sam was lying curled up on the floor, having fallen asleep watching a film. But the sight that caused her to laugh the most was Charlie and her little girl. Charlie was covered in paint splashes, but the best of it was the fact that there was a painted handprint on his chest where Rose had clearly been hanging on to him. The little girl in question was curled up against his side sound asleep whilst the Captain, her fiance who she had never really seen as being soft, was lying on his back also sleeping with his hand on Rose’s back, holding her against him so she couldn’t roll off the sofa. 

She had never realised that Charlie was as protective over Rose as he was over Sam. She found the way that he was covered in paint but had not a care in the world hilarious because it was the complete opposite of what she had ever expected from him. He never seemed the type to do the decorating in the house, it just didn’t seem to be the sort of thing that he would do. But it seemed that if it involved having fun with the kids then he would. 

“Dawsey, if you keep laughing like that, you’re going to wake them,” Charlie laughed gently as he turned his head to the right and looked at her. It was clear that he hadn’t been as asleep as he had first appeared when she arrived home. “Shhh… Dawsey!” He laughed again as she walked towards him and Rose. It appeared subconscious but as Rose started to stir at the moment of his chest with his laughter he moved his hand up and down her back, and brought his other hand over to rest against her head and run through her hair in a soothing gesture. 

And it was in that moment that everything came crashing down for Molly. It was right then and there that she realised why she was so hesitant to let Charlie be responsible for Rose. As she watched him with her daughter, she realised that his actions were parental, fatherly. And whilst she would do that with Sam, it was only after she and Charlie had spoken to Rebecca and made sure that she was comfortable with it, because afterall she was Sam’s mother and her vote meant more than Molly’s. But they couldn’t do that for Rose. She couldn’t check that Geraint was comfortable with Charlie playing bonus dad to Rose, because it wasn’t a case of him being a bonus dad. If he did step up he would be her only fatherly role model. 

She didn’t know whether to cry as her heart broke for her daughter, and for Geraint despite the length of time that had passed since his death, or laugh at the fact that her fiance decorating with the kids was what brought her to this realisation. It was just another example of how broken she was, but she was determined to figure this one out and repair the crack in her reflection this time. 

  
  



	5. Fox In The Snow

It was always a sad day. It was meant to be a happy day but it was always clouded by a great sense of sadness as well. Rose’s birthday was meant to be a celebration of her, a day of fun and excitement. But it was also the anniversary of the last time that her dad was alive. The last time that the world was graced by the presence of Geraint. 

Molly loved her daughter's birthday because it was the day that she got the most important thing in her world. Her daughter was the reason that she did everything that she did. She knew that she would give everything and anything for Rose. But despite that, she could never bring herself to celebrate Rose’s birthday on the actual birthday. She didn’t want to overshadow either the celebration of Rose or the memories of Geraint by having both on the same day. It wasn’t something she wanted Rose to deal with. 

But the best part about Rose’s birthday was the fact that it was in winter. And if they were lucky there would be snow. She wasn’t sure why but Rose loved the snow, it was her favourite thing and as soon as there was snow she wanted to be outside in it. So whilst it was still a day full of sadness, even if they celebrated after Geraint’s anniversary, if they were lucky, Rose managed to avoid the sadness as a result of her sheer joy of playing in the snow. 

And that was exactly what happened that morning. Molly and Charlie, who for a rare occasion was home, had been woken early in the morning by Rose knocking on their door and shouting through to them that it had snowed. Despite the fact that she had groaned and wanted to hide under her pillow, Molly was glad that the weather had worked in Rose’s favour. 

“Looks like our little fox is going to be a fox in the snow,” Charlie had laughed before he pressed a kiss to the back of her shoulder and sat up. He was always ready to go, always quick to wake up, while she had always loved her bed. “I’ll get her downstairs for breakfast and we’ll see you in a few.” He added as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached for his t-shirt. 

Molly wasn’t sure when Rose had went from being her’s to being theirs, but she found that whilst she struggled with whether it was right for Rose to see someone as a father figure, she was also glad that they had become a family. She viewed Sam as her own as well, so it made sense. But the thing that always tickled her was the fact that he kept calling Rose a little fox. She wasn’t sure where it came from but she wasn’t going to stop it. 

“Okay,” she agreed as she listened to him walking towards their bedroom door. She was awake now and she would get up, but she just needed a moment. It was the day after Rose’s actual birth date but they had spent yesterday remembering Geraint. And she was emotionally spent, it had been the first time that Rose had asked who Geraint actually was to them all. 

She had had to explain to Rose that Geraint was her father, and that she meant that she and Geraint had been together. And Charlie had explained that he had known Geraint as well and that he was the one who had made sure that he came home so that there was somewhere for her to visit him. That was when the tough questions started, the questions about why he hadn’t come to meet her, why he had been in Afghan. The questions that there wasn’t really a fulfilling but child friendly answer to. 

Molly had promised that she would explain when Rose was older, and according to her baby girl, that was today. And now that she thought about it, she could see why Charlie had nicknamed her Little Fox. She was wily like a fox. 

“You have to have your breakfast before you go and play in the snow, Little Fox!” Charlie laughed from where he was making breakfast for them all. It had been a tradition for Sam that every time that he was home from deployment and it was one of their birthdays that everyone got homemade pancakes. He wasn’t sure where the tradition had come from but it just stuck. And then once he and Molly were together, Sam had questioned why they didn’t do the same. So it just became a family thing regardless of who's birthday it was. 

“I’m not a Little Fox anymore, it’s my birthday. I’m six now!” Rose replied as he started to plate the first pancake. She sounded so tough and determined that he knew if he turned to face she would be sitting at the table with a pout on her face and her arms folded. She would look the spitting image of her mum, of that he was sure. And that was why he wasn’t looking at her whilst he sorted breakfast. He would end up laughing too much at her. 

“Yeah, but you're still our little girl. Just like Sammy is our little man.” It was pointless to attempt to explain it to Rose. She would never understand that even when she got to his age, he would still see her as his little girl, and the same with Sammy. It was a parent thing. 

“Okay, but I still want to go out and play in the snow!” Rose finally relented. It was at that point that he spun on his heel having just poured the pancake mixture for the next pancake into the pan to cook. He looked at her and laughed, he couldn’t stop it. She had dropped the pout but her arms were still crossed and she was now leaning up on her chair studying the pancake that he already had sitting on a plate. 

“Once you’ve had your breakfast and your mum is down,” he assured her. This wasn’t the first time that they had had this conversation, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. 

“Okay. Is mummy having pancakes too?” And just like that the conversation was off in another direction. Charlie could only nod as he glanced over the top of Rose’s head towards the kitchen door where Molly was leaning her shoulder against the door jam. 

This was what family mornings were made for. Laughter and pancakes and the desire to play in the snow. It was the perfect remedy for the heartbreak that he knew his wife was feeling after the significance of the previous day. 

  
  



	6. White Winter Hymnal

She faded away into the crowd. She followed behind them as they made their way through the snow. It was strangely quiet. All of them had their scarves on, each of them were red for some unknown reason, but for her it felt strange. She was the only one who was dressed any different. 

The further that they walked, the further that she followed them, the more worried she got. She knew that they were gearing up for a battle of sorts but that didn’t give her any real answers. She didn’t know what the battle was or why she was following them. She had just been drawn into the crowd and led away. 

But that was the joys of college, she guessed. You ended up with new experiences without ever knowing how you got there. But she would guess that there were worse places to end up. Especially when you were being dragged along in a college crowd. 

She hated football. She detested it now. That had not always been the case, but now, it most definitely wasn’t a sport she enjoyed. She had had enough experiences in a football stadium that she didn’t want to repeat. 

But being dragged towards the football pitch, just following along with the crowd that she had gotten swallowed into, she realised that the likelihood of lightning striking twice was rare and that meant that she should be good. The chances of anything happening to anyone at the football pitch was slim. And on top of that none of them were Smurf so she didn’t have the added worry of how her daughter would deal with losing the only positive male role model she really had. She was overthinking it. 

Her mind was doing that thing where she thought of everything as she did in Afghan. Everything was a war zone, a job, a duty. And it wasn’t that she thought that she was still there, it was just the way her brain had trained itself. And now, now she was going to use it to get through college. 

She hadn’t left the army, but she wanted her daughter to know that education was important, and for her to show her that, Molly figured that she needed to have at least been to college. She never planned to leave the army, she loved it, but she wasn’t willing to ignore the fact that she could get injured at any time. She knew that she needed a plan just in case. Which was where college came into the picture. 

She loved getting to learn, her only problem was the fact that she ended up in a class with people a lot younger than her and most seemed to be idiots. Which was how she ended up here. The only thing she could think was that the song White Winter Hymnal completely covered this situation. The lyrics to it described her as she walked toward the football pitch still inside the crowd. 

She would be home soon enough, picking up her daughter and step-son on the way, but for now she would just go with it. Just let it go and let the youngsters be childish like they wanted. She could remember what it was like to be their age, to want to party and laugh and enjoy themselves. 

The crowd would start to break soon. And once that happened she would escape and head home. She had grown up at some point, especially since joining the army. She had to have or else she wouldn’t be there, at college, learning. 

  
  



End file.
